Reshma Ravishanker
Set to turn into vaccination centres from January 3 for teens, Bengaluru schools are still awaiting guidelines or intimation on preparations for the drive from the state government.
Even as the government has enthusiastically announced the administration of Covid-19 vaccination for teens from January 3, schools across the city are unaware of intricacies in setting up the sites, parental consent forms, guidelines and more. Moreover, with some schools remaining shut over Christmas holidays and set to reopen only in the second week of January, the initial response could be lukewarm, school authorities believe.
The state’s department of health and family welfare has set a target of nearly 32 lakh teens to be jabbed in association with the education department. While students enrolled into the education system will be jabbed at schools, uncertainties loom over achieving the target for out of school children.
“Our school will be a site for vaccine administration. Parent-teacher meetings will be organized and schools will issue consent forms to parents to approve. 28 days later, as Covaxin is the only approved vaccine; the second dose will be injected. Students born post-January 1, 2007 are eligible for it. Those students who are unable to avail it in their schools can visit the nearest PHCs and get the vaccine. Private schools can also tie-up with private hospitals for the same. As of now, local bodies have been asked to trace out-of-school children and have them vaccinated,” said R Vishal, commissioner, education department.
When contacted, school authorities said that they had little information on setting up sites in schools and the guidelines. Dr M Srinivasan, president of, CBSE schools association said, “Nobody has contacted us so far. We have not received any guidelines either on taking consent from parents or meeting with them. We have done vaccination for adults previously at the school. So we have previous experience.”
Nooraine Fazal, founding managing trustee and CEO, Inventure Academy confirmed that although announcements have been made in the media and a general circular has been rolled out regarding vaccines for teens, no official communication has been received by educators.
Also read:
Pfizer study tests extra Covid vaccine dose for kids under five years
ZyCoV-D: India’s first needle-free three-dose covid vaccine for adolescents